<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Salty Kisses by Luminee</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23318815">Salty Kisses</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luminee/pseuds/Luminee'>Luminee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>ATEEZ (Band), K-pop</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friends to Lovers, Lost Love, M/M, Nostalgia, One Shot, good ending, i miss my home and i'm passing it on san, implied jongjoong, reminiscing a lot, teenage romance, they're cute by the sea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:40:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,377</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23318815</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luminee/pseuds/Luminee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>As San comes back to his home town, he retraces his memories with Wooyoung.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Choi San &amp; Jung Wooyoung, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Salty Kisses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello ~</p><p>I started this back on January because I was myself going back home and I decided to finish it because, well, quarantine and I thought it was kinda too good (if I may say) to be lost like that.<br/>It's not too important but every place I talk about in this one-shot actually are real and it's based on a French island called Reunion Island and well I just wanted to let y'all know about that, it's a dear place of mine.<br/>Hope you like it, and I hope everyone is safe at home !<br/>I translated it without re-reading so I hope there isn't any mistake also I hope the conjugation is okay, I'm sorry if it's not, English isn't my first language! Thank you so much </p><p>update: I corrected everything saw there was a lot of mistakes so I think it's better now</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>San let the window open even if the wind was howling stronger and stronger as the car was going faster on the highway. The air was dry but it was refreshing as it felt way too hot in the car, San smiled thinking that he had lost being used to such heat after all this time. The wind ruffled in his hair and he closed his eyes, enjoying it fully and taking deep breathes. Maybe he was imagining it, but he felt like the air had a different smell here. It smelt like comfort. He was finally home and it felt like the wind was whispering it in his hears.</p><p>His father was driving quietly, focusing on the road which was better for San who started to feel tired due to the long trip. His eyes were heavy, his muscles stiffed through sitting and dragging his big luggage everywhere. However, nothing could go over the serenity he was feeling, knowing that the trip was eventually coming to an end. Just like the weight on his chest had flown away as the plane had landed.</p><p>He had not seen the ocean for a long time. And yet, it was like he had never left. The road was the same, less impressive than what his child's eyes had remembered. He used to be so scared by the idea of the rocks rolling down the hills around one side of the road. He had stared for a while at the net that was supposed to hold those against anything, all the way by the hills. On the other side, the swell was brutally hitting the coast, the foam creating and transforming the dark and sharp rocks as time went by. The salt was hitching his nose. The road to the airport had always felt like it lasted forever, but it had felt so short when he had had to leave for the first time. Sometimes, San thought about what would have happened if he had stayed.</p><p>Maybe nothing better was his most common answer. He had grown up ever since.</p><p>All the landscapes were going by. San could have pictured them with his eyes closed from miles away, he could recognize those among the thousand. Being finally able to admire those made him overwhelmed with joy. If there was a heaven on Earth, it was probably here somewhere between the sea and the mountains. Even maybe in the middle of a sugar canes field.</p><p>Nothing had been serious here. San had ended up believing that happiness could only be found there, in the sloped streets of his hometown. His town, in which any kind of living form was disappearing after six pm, where the public transportation never came by and where he always had to beg for his parents to drive him outside; or had to walk, climbing the slopes under the heat, under the wetness sometimes oppressive, but that he had eventually started to love. He was only ten years old when he nad his friends would sneak outside of their primary school to go to the tiny shop, the only one near the school, to find some candies. Yunho and Mingi always loved to play with chocolate cigarettes, pretending to be adults. San smiled, if only they had known. He had preferred the heart-shaped lollipops, they tasted like strawberries and were so thin he could have eaten those all day long. After those years, he had never found lollipops like that. With those, a few candies necklaces that they would wear around their neck, or around their wrist like Hongjoong would do; and they tried to keep those for as long as possible even when the candies melted. Near the cafeteria was a bench under several little trees where they would always hang out, next to the football pitch (or sometimes handball pitch), where other students would play. When it was raining, they ran to protect themselves under the inner courtyard. They were not allowed to run there, but they could not have cared less about it.</p><p>Growing up, they only hang out even more in the city. They may have all went to junior high school but their meeting points always was in front of their primary school. A location still way too reassuring and familiar to let go of it. Hongjoong and San lived closed; Yunho and Mingi would join them by bike. They would wander without purpose. There was not much to do anyway and the candies had seemed less interesting has teenage youth brought them into new torments. There was not even a movie theater in town, the most exciting place was the tiny mall at the entrance of the supermarket. A hairdresser, a weird coffee shop where only the old and the lonely would stay all day, and a clothes shop (Hongjoong had often said there was nothing to do with that), but at least the air conditioning would refresh the hottest days during summer when it was almost impossible to walk due to the heat. It had been boring, but San had felt so good there; like holidays were all year long. When they would feel brave, they would walk to the forest. After too many turns to count, there was a crocodiles park, what had seemed to most like a zoo for them. When they were young, the crocodiles had looked so terrifying, and the young boys would quietly watch the caretakers feed the animals. Eyes big and mouths open.</p><p>And then, Wooyoung had come.</p><p>San had felt inexplicably attracted to Wooyoung ever since his first day in high school, ever since the first time he had crossed the doors of the building and had met this young boy looking for his class. Wooyoung never stopped talking, not shy at all in front of a stranger and San had felt happy knowing he would share his year in the same class with such an enthusiastic and nice boy. Wooyoung had quickly brought his best friend, Yeosang, into their group of friends.</p><p>Nobody had been surprised when San had kissed Wooyoung during their first Halloween party together. They had spent the night wandering in the town, once the children had stopped their candy hunting. Hongjoong, a bottle of alcohol in his hand, had been guiding them. Or, more like not guiding them at all. Following his instinct, they had gone by the empty streets to the edge of the sea, climbing the piles of stones, jumping in the sand, avoiding the dangerous waves of the ocean, and playing on the swings in the park. The air had been hot, the sky had been starry, the last traces of winter had started to fade away and San had not been able to resist when Wooyoung had taken off his jacket, revealing a simple t-shirt has they wander. Yunho and Mingi had left to find more alcohol, grabbing Yeosang with them, and Hongjoong had tried to talk with two of his classmates as formally as his drunkenness would let him be. San had dragged Wooyoung until they both had water around their calf. Alcohol had completely scrambled his mind and he had only followed his heart, kissing suddenly Wooyoung like he would have never had another chance to do so.</p><p>He had been so happy that this kiss had been the first one of a long tradition for them.</p><p>Their group of friends got bigger that night, adding up Seonghwa and Jongho. It also got stronger. San had thought at that time that nothing could have been able to stop them. They may have not known each other since childhood but there had been between them something so strong like invisible links had brought them together. Wooyoung would always say strongly that it had been destiny. That they had been meant for each other. San had thought it sounded well. That it felt reassuring to think he could never be alone anymore.</p><p>Wooyoung laughed a lot. Wooyoung moved a lot. Wooyoung knew the most beautiful places on the island that San had never thought they would exist. He had dragged him until the edge of a hill where the grass was covered by flowers and other funeral tributes, where San’s parents had always explained how dangerous it was, and then he had gone by another road. Wooyoung was holding firmly his hand, walking on the more or less slippery rocks, licked by the waves He had brought him where the sea was calmer, an oasis of serenity in the middle of the violent swell that they still could hear. The road was a bit long and difficult. They had to be careful not to fall, not to slip on the rocks which also were hot under their feet. However, Wooyoung knew the way and had not let go of his hand until a round of limpid water that the waves could not reach, protected by rocks, where they could spot the fishes swim. San had not believed his eyes, he had grown up on this island too but had never imagined such a pretty place could exist there, so close to him. Wooyoung had smiled with all his teeth as he had spotted San’s surprise on his face, proud of himself, and had taken off his shirt so they would both jump into the water. Their kisses had been salty but soft. Even if they had all the space for them, their bodies had stayed glued one to the other, and none of them had wished for it to be different. They had stayed there until the sun had gone down, into the water or laying lazily on the uncomfortable rocks when the heat was more bearable as the night was falling, watching the star disappear on the horizon. The sky had turned red, pink, orange, as the sun was melting with the surface of the ocean. Wooyoung had confessed it was his favorite landscape. San had thought his was Wooyoung.</p><p>But Wooyoung had more ambition. It went way farther than the ocean that was under their eyes. He had always talked about his will to pursue his studies, about the world beyond the island, about life in a big city, the subway. San had never been mad at this, way the opposite. He also had shared his will to leave and, no matter how hard it had hurt him, he had already known at this time that there was nothing for him there. And it probably what had been the hardest to swallow.</p><p>Everybody had left. Not at the same time. But no one had been able to stay home, everyone had come to the same conclusion, even if they may have not shared the same pain. And San had lost the others. Teenagers’ words had flown away at the same time as the planes that would lead them to their personal paths. San had often thought about it, an inch of nostalgia in his heart, quickly<br/> replaced by a weird serenity of the one that was happy he, at least, had the chance to live this way, even if it was now over.</p><p>The car finally reached the little town. He raised, his fatigue went away and his eyes started to recognize the buildings that were appearing around him. He felt like a stranger in his own house. Nothing had changed and at the same time, everything was different. New shops, but the same road, the same only and old traffic light, more buildings, new drawings on the walls, more cars. They went by his primary school, which walls had been painted into brighter colors that did not fit at all with the tiny library at the opposite of the road. And, from far away, he recognized them. He asked his father to stop the car, blinking like he did not believe his own eyes.</p><p>Hongjoong and Jongho were sitting in front of the school. If it had not been obvious that they both were older, that their clothes were different, he could have thought they had been there forever. Hongjoong had finally pierced his ears like had had always talked about during high school. Jongho had become even more muscled, making Hongjoong even tinier in his arms. When they spotted San, they both stood up and, almost like in slow motion, they ran to him. Suddenly, nothing mattered more for San, not the hours of travel he had piled up, nor the shower he had dreamed of. There only were his friends and him.</p><p>San did not see Wooyoung come by car. He had never imagined that he had gotten his license. They looked at each other shyly, a bit awkwardly, not daring to say or do something. Their relationship had stopped in a common agreement, neither of them had the strength to bear the new distance between them. They had always lived their love next to the other, far away from the screens and the phone calls, able to get to the other’s house as soon as their heart wanted to. The choice had been painful, having to say goodbye to Wooyoung had been the worst thing San had ever had to do; not a day had gone by without him wondering if they could have been able to make things work.</p><p>But Wooyoung was standing in front of him. A Wooyoung different but still familiar and thousand of questions was jostling in his head. Was his ambition finally pleased? Was he happy? Had he thought about him at all? Was there someone else? Because for San there had been no one else but he and no one could have been to take his spot in his heart.</p><p>He did not exactly know if he took the first step or if Hongjoong pushed him slightly forward, but he took Wooyoung in his arms. The latter let him do it, finding back his own spot, his head in the deep of San’s shoulder.</p><p>“Wooyoung,” said San in a shaky voice.</p><p>He did not let him finish his sentence, gently putting his lips on his, “I missed you.”</p><p>He whispered those words a few centimeters away from San’s face before kissing him again. Maybe they had managed to beat time after all.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Find me on twitter @woobrioche<br/>Again thank you for reading, don't forget kudos or comments if you liked it! Hope to see you soon ~</p><p>If you want more maybe check out Etoilephilante's absolutely adorable <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23367556">jongjoong</a> that totally works in this universe! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>